Lecture Video: Korean Art in Its East Asian Context

Submitted by pwunderlich on Sat, 06/17/2017 - 1:55am

Korea, because of its geo-political situation, was a natural recipient of the most advanced Chinese art and culture, which were then transmitted to Japan. This process of transmission, however, stimulated the development of a distinctive Korean national and cultural identity, along with the creation of works of art in a wide range of mediums that are uniquely Korean in every aspect.

Examining Korean art in the larger context of East Asian history, culture, and artistic production, this lecture will explore how this process evolved over more than a thousand years and shaped art that is unmistakably Korean in iconography, form, color, style, and technique.

Yi Song-mi, Emerita of Art History at the Academy of Korean Studies, previously served as Dean of the Graduate School at the Academy, and was previously Professor and Director of the University museum at Duksung Women’s University in Seoul. She has been a member of the National History Council of Korea and has served as the President of Korean Art History Association. In April 2014, she served as the Special Lecturer at the Tang Center for East Asian Art History at Princeton University.

Professor Yi was educated at Seoul National University (B.A.), UC Berkeley (M.A.), and Princeton University (Ph. D.). Her recent publications on Korean painting include Searching for Modernity: Western Influence and True-View Landscape in Korean Painting of the Late Chosŏn Period (2014), the award winning Joseon Dynasty books of Royal Wedding in Art Historical Perspective (Korean, 2008), Korean Landscape Painting: Continuity and Innovation Through the Ages (2006).